SANTA MONICA - Veteran colorist and Australia native Siggy Ferstl has joined Riot Santa Monica (www.rioting.com), an Ascent Media company. Ferstl began his telecine career grading high-end television commercials in Melbourne and was most recently was head of telecine and film services at Digital Pictures Sydney for eight years. While there he developed the first pipeline in Australia for digital intermediate color correction for feature films.
Ferstl has been working closely with da Vinci in developing and testing their new nonlinear server-based color corrector "Nucleas," serving as a company spokesman at IBC in Amsterdam and, most recently, at NAB in Las Vegas. "His reel really reflects a great talent for collaboration and international look," says Marcie Malooly, managing director of Riot Santa Monica. "For his work in the Asian market, there is a focus on strong color, while his UK and Australian segments have a very stylized and modern look. With Siggy's great eye and creativity, I am really excited about what he can bring to Riot and how clients will benefit from working with him."
In terms of digital cinema work, Ferstl has graded many features and has produced entire films on negative as a digital intermediate. Some of his DI film work includes Australia?s first digital intermediate film, "Of Travelers and Magicians" for director Kyentse Norbu; "Thunderstruck" for Australian director Darren Aston; as well as the Indian film "Boys" and "House of Flying Daggers" for Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
His HD feature credits include "Garage Days" for director Alex Proyas and "The Night They Called it a Day" for director Paul Goldman. His commercial work is also extensive, having collaborated with such leading UK, Australian and US commercial directors as Bruce Hunt, David Deneen, Alex Proyas, Jeff Darling, Robert Gordon and Mark Bennett.
"It's great to be on board with Riot, and working here in America is a natural progression for me," says Ferstl. "I am looking forward to working with new styles of color and adding a few fresh ideas into the mix."